By Gabe from Penny Arcade:I had seen Krosmaster Arena for sale at PAX Prime and I immediately loved the art on the box. I wasn’t able to pick it up at the show but when I saw it again this week at a game shop near the office I had to grab it. The little figures were so awesome I even picked up a set of them as well before I had even played the game. I figured worst case scenario the game sucks and they will just look cool on my shelf. The good news is the game is fucking awesome. The bad news is now I have to buy a lot more of these little bastards.

Krosmaster Arena is a physical version of a digital game that you can play inside the games Wakfu or Dofus. I know that’s strange but it’s sort of like how you can buy and play a real life version of Tetra Master from FF IX. I personally had no experience with the digital version as I had never played Wakfu or Dofus before.

So what sort of game is it? To me it’s sort of like a tabletop MOBA similar to League of Legends or DOTA but without the tower defense. It’s about choosing a character from a diverse roster of heroes and battling in an arena against your friends. You could also describe it as a PVP version of Super Dungeon Explore or If you’re not sick of comparisons already it also feels a bit like a turn based Power Stone.

By Gabe from Penny Arcade:A little while after Katie moved to Seattle and started working in the PA office we all went to lunch. The waitress recognized us and Jerry asked if she watched Strip Search. She said yes and then Jerry introduced Katie as the winner of the show. The waitress frowned. “I just started watching it.” she said.

So I apologize if I’m spoiling the show for anyone but come on it’s super old at this point. Katie Rice did in fact win the ultimate prize. She’s been working in the PA office for a few months now and it’s been awesome having her here. She’s done a couple PA presents projects in that time but she’s also been working on Camp Weedonwantcha. This was the strip she submitted at the end of the series to win the competition.

By Tycho from Penny Arcade:I already said that I liked The Stanley Parable; we talked about it after he had played it a bit thinking that we might get a strip out of it. memorableWhich we did</a>, even if it wan’t the one we set out to find. It’s a complicated… piece. It’s hard to even know what to call it. A big part of the reason people want the things they make to be “games” is so that they may inherit “legitimacy.” I don’t care about any of this stuff, I’m just communicating the state of play, which I guess is a double entendre. I’m always entending shit - that’s the takeaway. And those things are in quotes because they constitute ranges as opposed to discrete meanings. We argue so much about so many things that I can usually “find” him in any thought; I can discern the ways in which he will counter me. So it is here. And I can explain why this or that thing isn’t true, switch by switch. There are many games where “all you do” is move things around, and then manage the ramifications of the moved things. The name isn’t as important as the thing, anyhow. I could have the whole dialogue here, if I felt like that would be a good time investment. The problem is at a much higher level, though, so diddling what appears to be a bunch of nodulated clusters of disagreement looks useful but isn’t. They don’t form the lattice of the structure, they’re placed there after the fact to give the whole enterprise a patina of coherency. This isn’t me saying this about him, this is me saying this about most of our awesome philosophies. They are wild west movie sets. We are attempting to make pearls from grit. < article continued at Penny Arcade >

By Gabe from Penny Arcade:I’ve had about a week with my Surface Pro 2 now and I wanted to share my thoughts. Full disclosure MS did give me this Surface Pro 2 since I was so vocal about my love of the first one. So what makes the Pro 2 different?

Well on the outside not much actually. In terms of its physical dimensions it is identical to the first Pro. They have given it a new two stage kickstand. This solves one of my big complaints about using the device in your lap. For anyone around the 6 foot mark the old kickstand put the device at an uncomfortable angle if you were trying to use it like a laptop. The new kickstand solves this and that makes me happy.

I’m not a computer guy. I don’t know about processors and rams or megs. I can tell you that the version MS sent me has 8gb of ram and came with 232gb off free HD space. Tycho tells me that internally the device is sporting some slick hardware but all I really care about is how it performs. So how does it perform?

Art

This is probably the biggest feature for me. The surface Pro is a mobile digital art studio. The Pro is a full windows 8 computer which means I can put Manga Studio and Photoshop on it. I have a Creative Cloud account so getting my Adobe apps on there was a snap. Just like the Surface Pro 1 I can draw entire strips on here and create print ready art with ease. I can do my job on the Surface Pro and I can do it anywhere.

When it comes to the Pro 2 there are some improvements in this department but they are minor. MS has managed to improve pen sensitivity around the edges of the screen. This was a problem on the first Pro. It used to be that the closer you got to the edge of the screen the less accurate the pen was. This sucked because that tends to be where all your little tool buttons are. I don’t find this to be an issue any longer with the Pro 2.

By Tycho from Penny Arcade:Most people I know arrived at Ladies & Gentlemen via the video by Shut Up & Sit Down, which is one of the more interesting things I have ever seen situated beneath the review aegis. This is another new game we played at one of the Kickstarter gaming nights, and the experience - what transpired both by and between the rules of the game - was memorable. To put it lightly. It’s my recommendation that you watch that video, because they are great, and it is useful. And also because, quite intentionally, we played it in a way that did not give us access to the entirety of the rules. As Ladies, we more or less made the Gentlemen set their game up on a completely other table at the other side of the room. I saw the video months ago. To this day I don’t know, nor do I care, why they leave or what they do while they are gone. What I care about is how much money he has brought home with him, and how much better he did than everyone else. The first bit determines what I can buy, and the second can determine whether or not I get a fresh look at a shop’s merchandise or if I get there after it’s been picked over by some ragged trollop. < article continued at Penny Arcade >

The Hanna pin should arrive in our warehouse this week and will start shipping ASAP. This was a limited run on just 1000 pins and it did sell out in about fifteen minutes. We held a few back for trading purposes so if you didn’t get one I should have a few on me at PAX East.

The Halloween set should also be arriving soon. We have been pushing hard to get this set available to you guys before Halloween and I think we will but it’s gonna be close. In the meantime I can at least share the artwork with you!

The Killer Instinct Pin Ultimate edition is still available and we’ve managed to push the release date of the Pin Ultimate edition to 11/22!

You can get more info about this special edition here. Essentially you get the game, all the characters, all the first season DLC, and a super cool display case with two pinny arcade pins. You’re collection starts with a Jago pin and a KI logo pin. There are seven more character pins drawn by me that you will be able to purchase in the PA store. There are also seven more “engagement” pins that you can earn by completing in game challenges and attending real world events. Complete the challenge and you will get a coupon that covers the cost of the pin! If you can’t make it to PAX East or you’re not able to complete a specific challenge your collection is not boned. These engagement pins will also be available for purchase.

By Gabe from Penny Arcade:I had seen Krosmaster Arena for sale at PAX Prime and I immediately loved the art on the box. I wasn’t able to pick it up at the show but when I saw it again this week at a game shop near the office I had to grab it. The little figures were so awesome I even picked up a set of them as well before I had even played the game. I figured worst case scenario the game sucks and they will just look cool on my shelf. The good news is the game is fucking awesome. The bad news is now I have to buy a lot more of these little bastards.

Krosmaster Arena is a physical version of a digital game that you can play inside the games Wakfu or Dofus. I know that’s strange but it’s sort of like how you can buy and play a real life version of Tetra Master from FF IX. I personally had no experience with the digital version as I had never played Wakfu or Dofus before.

So what sort of game is it? To me it’s sort of like a tabletop MOBA similar to League of Legends or DOTA but without the tower defense. It’s about choosing a character from a diverse roster of heroes and battling in an arena against your friends. You could also describe it as a PVP version of Super Dungeon Explore or If you’re not sick of comparisons already it also feels a bit like a turn based Power Stone.

By Tycho from Penny Arcade:I pushed Telltale’s The Walking Dead hard - not just on you, but on virtually every person I know. And since it’s out for every Goddamn thing, the likelihood that a person has (or has access to) a device which can contain the experience is high. I said fairly recently that The Walking Dead was the first time I felt that Episodic as a matter of conception or execution had run on “all cylinders,” but maybe it happened before and it was for something I didn’t know about which was also very good. Kentucky Route Zero gets at the same thing - it’s resonant, careening inside the skull. Did you ever play that? Did I forget to freak out about it publicly? If I did, it’s because I thought I could only weakly gesture at it. People are going to study this fucking thing in college. Believe it. Independent of all the game things, the gamey game game stuff, beeps and boops, creating in a format that leverages these long pauses between releases gives them a lot of power over your mind. Alan Wake played around with this stuff a little bit, a game as discrete episodes all contained on the same disc; the newest Alone In The Dark did as well. Obviously, you could continue playing immediately. But even in those nominal executions, you still felt the twinge: it is over, but not over. I think the word “liminal” has an application here. In those cases, you get a feeling with that shape and then continue on. In these Telltale ones, you - as a player, and as a character - “hang” from a virtual “cliff’ for a month, or more. It compounds the experience, being deprived of it, which I guess explains why Freemium games with energy systems work the way they do. Absence and fond hearts, etc. < article continued at Penny Arcade >

By Gabe from Penny Arcade:Do you or your kids wanna dress up as a Lookout, Daughter of the Eyrewood, or Thornwatch member? If you do, send me a picture and If I get enough I’ll post a gallery here on the site. I’ll even put together a special Eyrewood prize pack for my favorites. Send me your pics before Halloween if you want in on the contest!

The Hanna pin should arrive in our warehouse this week and will start shipping ASAP. This was a limited run on just 1000 pins and it did sell out in about fifteen minutes. We held a few back for trading purposes so if you didn’t get one I should have a few on me at PAX East.

The Halloween set should also be arriving soon. We have been pushing hard to get this set available to you guys before Halloween and I think we will but it’s gonna be close. In the meantime I can at least share the artwork with you!

The Killer Instinct Pin Ultimate edition is still available and we’ve managed to push the release date of the Pin Ultimate edition to 11/22!

You can get more info about this special edition here. Essentially you get the game, all the characters, all the first season DLC, and a super cool display case with two pinny arcade pins. You’re collection starts with a Jago pin and a KI logo pin. There are seven more character pins drawn by me that you will be able to purchase in the PA store. There are also seven more “engagement” pins that you can earn by completing in game challenges and attending real world events. Complete the challenge and you will get a coupon that covers the cost of the pin! If you can’t make it to PAX East or you’re not able to complete a specific challenge your collection is not boned. These engagement pins will also be available for purchase.

I’ve actually been lucky enough to visit the Bungie offices on a few occasions and I’ve seen walls covered with their incredible concept art. It really is amazing work. Some of this stuff will have never been seen before and some of it will even give you a glimpse at their new game Destiny. It’s beautiful work and if you can make it down to the gallery I highly recommend you check it out. Even if you can’t make it to the gallery remember to keep an eye on the gallery site. Remember all the proceeds from sales of the work will go directly to Child’s Play!

The Hanna pin should arrive in our warehouse this week and will start shipping ASAP. This was a limited run on just 1000 pins and it did sell out in about fifteen minutes. We held a few back for trading purposes so if you didn’t get one I should have a few on me at PAX East.

The Halloween set should also be arriving soon. We have been pushing hard to get this set available to you guys before Halloween and I think we will but it’s gonna be close. In the meantime I can at least share the artwork with you!

The Killer Instinct Pin Ultimate edition is still available and we’ve managed to push the release date of the Pin Ultimate edition to 11/22!

You can get more info about this special edition here. Essentially you get the game, all the characters, all the first season DLC, and a super cool display case with two pinny arcade pins. You’re collection starts with a Jago pin and a KI logo pin. There are seven more character pins drawn by me that you will be able to purchase in the PA store. There are also seven more “engagement” pins that you can earn by completing in game challenges and attending real world events. Complete the challenge and you will get a coupon that covers the cost of the pin! If you can’t make it to PAX East or you’re not able to complete a specific challenge your collection is not boned. These engagement pins will also be available for purchase.

By Tycho from Penny Arcade:You would think, even I would think, that this strip came about because I had seen a sparkly word somewhere and had endeavored to integrate it into my nest. Not so! We have a soft spot, if not a hard spot, for the workings of Dave Gross. By which we mean his books! Not his other operations. But there’s no reason to believe the way in which he metabolizes carbohydrates isn’t also great. I’m sure he puts his own spin on it. But he has found the trick of writing licensed fiction that is fun to read and is also sprankled with ideas you carry out with you. Jamie, Sandersonian Sorceress Supreme, grabbed Gabriel’s copy of the book and becan to read passages from King of Chaos with a gravelly lisp to shame him - she referenced a unicorn’s “hooveth” at one point - and he was seared, with the tasteful grill marks that indentify a true barbecue champion. Sometimes you want to read, but you also want to play Dungeons and Dragons, and he writes books that sort of let you do both simultaneously. For the time conscious, the man is a godsend. Anyway, I don’t know if it is a spoiler, but there’s a Unicorn in the book somewhere. Maybe more than one. And there’s a word for such a thing. There are out of the way, more than likely specious names for all sorts of animal heaps, it turns out: A Jerky of Martinets

A Bruschetta of Flatworms

A Lepton of Hummingbirds

A Crunchwrap of Wildebeests

And so on. I don’t think there’s an international body that even keeps track of this shit. I think it’s the wild-ass, motherfucking west.